Parent–Adolescent Decision Making

Abstract

Contemporary research on parent–adolescent decision making has been concerned with decision outcomes and has viewed these outcomes as indicators of adolescent autonomy. We offer an alternative, dialogical perspective, which directs attention to how adolescents and parents co-construct a decision. The analysis is based on parent and daughter narrations of an important school choice—the decision to apply to a new college-preparatory middle school for girls. By highlighting the decision process in three families, we illustrate how co-construction of a decision can differ even among families who would be classified in the same way on the commonly used outcome assessment. We also question the concept of adolescent decision-making “autonomy” in that it has fostered a disregard for the rich dialogical context of all decision making.

Theorizing the Decision‐Making Process for Divorce or Reconciliation

“…Only one study (Kanewischer & Harris, 2015) gave partial attention to the divorce decision-making process and experience. Overall, most of our research on decision making in family studies has not necessarily been about decision-making processes at all, but a rendering of family judgments about decision-making outcomes, an exploration of the types of decisions made, or the characteristics of who the decision maker was (Bell, Baron, Corson, Kostina-Ritchey, & Frederick, 2014).…”

“…The broad theoretical frameworks used to frame decision-making processes in many of these substantive areas often included social exchange theory (Donnelly & Burgess, 2008), rational choice theory (Shu, Zhu, & Zang, 2012), resource theory (Szinovacz & Davey, 2005), bargaining models (Abraham, Ausburg, & Hinz, 2010), or the theory of utility maximization , although more interpretive frameworks-including symbolic interactionism (Garrett-Peters & Burton, 2015), dialogical theory (Bell et al, 2014), and relational dialectic theory (Baxter, 2010)-have also been used to understand decision making.…”

“…Some family scholars have chosen to examine general decision-making processes within a more social constructionist or interpretive theoretical framework. Helpful approaches include dialogical theory (Bell et al, 2014), relational dialectic theory (Baxter, 2010), and symbolic interactionism (Garrett-Peters & Burton, 2015). The main assumption of dialogism is that sense making is dynamic.…”